As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we're pleased to be media partners with Beijing Design Week for the fourth year running, since its inception in 2011. The ever-expanding celebration of Chinese design kicked off last night in Dashilar, which endures as the cynosure of the nine-day event even as it evolves as a design-hub-cum-historic-district.
Last night saw the grand opening of the Dashilar Guild House exhibition space, adjacent to the extant area, at the Quanyechang 'department store'—originally built in 1906 and reopened last month following a three-year restoration process—where dozens of projects are on view across four stories of the skylit main hall. As the story goes, the organizers secured the space only after presenting Beijing Design Week at the Venice Biennale this summer, and a follow-up to that exhibition is on view at the Guild House (concurrently with the Biennale, which runs until November).
This year also saw the debut of a one-night-only pop-up in Dashilar's farmer's market, where the local community was invited to celebrate alongside international guests for a colorful launch party.
As with many of the biennales and design weeks beyond the Salone, the question lies both at the tip of the tongue and the tip of the iceberg: What does "design" mean on a local level vis-à-vis a global perspective, and to what degree is it worth drawing the distinction? In this sense, Janus is a veritable patron saint of any design festival, the critical juncture of past, present and future, and we look forward to bringing the creative culture of the city (of 21 million) and nation (of 1.35 billion) to light.
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